iPhone 5, currently the most powerful smartphone in the world is on sale worldwide and you would probably be thinking to buy one right now. But the hard question is from which carrier can you get an iPhone 5, right? Well if you were looking for carrier that gives out on-contract iPhone 5 but still makes the iPhone 5 unlocked, well look no further as Verizon might be the choice for you.

Verizon currently has the largest 4G network in the United States and of the main reasons you might thinking of buying a Verizon iPhone 5 is, well they are offering unlocked iPhone 5 for a price of $199.

Yes you read that right.

An unlocked iPhone 5 starting from $199, that’s got to be great right? Well this sounds too good to be true but in fact it’s true. Verizon is in fact selling unlocked iPhone 5 from the starting price of $199.

The reason?

Carriers are often reluctant to sell unlocked iPhone’s which basically allows users to use their competitors network, so why in the world would Verizon do this? Well actually they have no choice but to sell the unlocked iPhone 5’s, this is due to the reason enforced by the FCC for using the 700MHz spectrum that Verizon is using for LTE iPhone 5.

Here is the clause that mention this:

“(e) Handset locking prohibited. No licensee may disable features on handsets it provides to customers, to the extent such features are compliant with the licensee’s standards pursuant to paragraph (b) of this section, nor configure handsets it provides to prohibit use of such handsets on other providers’ networks.”

Well folks if you wanted an unlocked iPhone 5, then getting a Verizon iPhone 5 seems to be the right choice.

Do note that unlike before when Sprint launched the iPhone 4S which was intially unlocked but later relocked with a software update, it’s not going to happen this time with Verizon. Verizon iPhone 5 is going to stay unlocked forever.